Hugh Schofield
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
France's new prime minister, François Bayrou, is a familiar face. At 73, he's represented a centrist strand in politics for four decades, serving as education minister in the 1990s and running unsuccessfully three times for the presidency. In some ways, he was a precursor of Emmanuel Macron, with the same notion of transcending the old left-right divide.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
And with his small modem party, he's been a natural ally since the president took office. Today, though, his task looks more than daunting, a fact which he acknowledged in a short address as he took office. He was, he said, fully aware of the Himalayan scale of the challenge ahead, the debt, the deficit, the risk of society falling apart.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
But it was still worth trying to find a path ahead, a path, he said, that could only come through national reconciliation. It is indeed a divided and disillusioned country that Mr Beirut inherits, a parliament that's incapable of providing a firm government and a people more and more inclined to switch off and blank the political mess entirely.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
His first task is to put together a government, which won't be simple, and then, just three weeks before year's end, try to get a budget together for 2025. The last one, now in the bin, was what brought down his predecessor.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
Giselle Pellico arrived at the court just like on every other day, with lawyers, TV crews and supporters all in attendance. But today was different. Today marked the end of the trial and of her trial. At half past nine, the judge began the long list of verdicts, beginning with Dominique Pellico, the husband who for ten years used to drug her to sleep and then invite in other men to rape her.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
He was guilty. The sentence, 20 years. And then the other 50 accused, the men who abused her as she lay in her bed, comatose, all of them guilty. Their sentences were lesser, three to 15 years, shorter than what had been demanded by the prosecution. Six were able to leave the court free because of time already served in pretrial custody.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
Outside the courthouse, opposite the old walls of Avignon, Giselle Pellicot's supporters cheered the verdicts but were less happy with the sentences, which many felt were too lenient.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
Back inside the courthouse, Dominique Pellicot's lawyer said that he took note of the verdict and would decide in the coming days whether or not to appeal. The lawyer said that for her part, she hoped the trial result would bring some level of peace to Giselle. And then finally it was the moment to hear her reaction.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
She was in a state of emotional turmoil, she said, so she'd written down her few words. She thanked her family and her lawyers and all those who'd helped her to bear with the last three months of strain.
Global News Podcast
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione faces charges in New York court
Surrounded by a crush of supporters and journalists, Giselle Pellico was escorted by police down the front steps of the courthouse. Thank you, Giselle, they shouted from the crowd. Then she was driven away for the last time, her ordeal over an unwitting icon.
Global News Podcast
Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'
Mr. Bayer is a very, very familiar person on the French political scene and has been for 40 years. He's a bit of a kind of never was a I mean, he always is a man close to power, but never quite getting it. But he's there and he represents a strand in French politics, which is a consistent going back to the postwar era, Christian Democrat tradition, different from the Gaullists tradition.
Global News Podcast
Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'
who obviously stem from Charles de Gaulle, but close to them and allied to them. He first became a minister in 1993, education minister, hasn't been a minister since, except very briefly under Macron at the very beginning of Macron's term. He's run for presidency three times himself, but above all, he is now an ally of President Macron. And, you know, his latest sort of...
Global News Podcast
Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'
identification has been as someone very much in the Macron camp, lending his small party, 35 MPs, support to President Macron throughout Macron's career. So very close to Macron now, but a man with his own temperament, his own ideas, a lot of experience, and willing now, particularly given Macron's weakness, I think, to push his own line. A bit of a power struggle now with Macron.
Global News Podcast
Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'
Well, this is obviously the question that everyone's going to be asking. The beginnings are OK. You know, the reactions from just about everyone have been, well, let's give them some time. But that was also the reaction with Michel Barnier, let us not forget. No one except for the far left, the hard left, France and that bad party is saying outright, we want to bring this man down.
Global News Podcast
Syria: thousands celebrate 'Victory Day'
They are saying that. They say they'll vote a vote of censure. But everyone else is saying, no, no, we're going to see what happens. But of course, that's all very well now. The key moment is going to be when he produces the budget, which he has to very quickly, and that's when the divisions will come clear. Hugh Schofield talking to me from Paris.